Calgary’s economy may be on the rebound, but we’re not in the clear yet.
“We know that we’ve got a pretty tough year ahead of us again in 2018,” Mary Moran said.
In a year-end interview with Global News, the president and CEO of Calgary Economic Development said the city was able to attract, retain and help 66 companies in 2017. It also created well over 5,000 jobs. But there are still a lot of positions and office space sitting empty, particularly in the downtown core.
“In our estimation we’ve seen close to 50,000 people leave.”
Moran said Calgary has to acknowledge the bulk of the jobs will no longer come from the energy industry.
“We can’t rely on them for job creation,” she added.
Instead the organization plans on growing other businesses, including smaller ones with fewer than 50 employees, helping them expand their markets and reach beyond Alberta. It also plans to go after some big players, like it did when trying to lure Amazon to Calgary.
That decision is expected to be made early in the new year, a year Calgary Economic Development expects to be “exciting” if nothing else.